OWL Cybersecurity specializes in darknet intelligence. We've recently put that darknet intelligence (DARKINT™) into practice by assessing the darknet footprint of various contingencies of organizations, such as the Fortune 500, for example.

What matters most is an exhibitor’s ranking as compared to its competition,” said Mark Turnage, CEO of OWL Cybersecurity. “For example, if Symantec, Trend Micro, and Kapersky Lab consider each other competitors, they should assess their footprint scores in relation to one another.

Most recently, we ranked every company who exhibited at the information security conference Black Hat 2017 (ourselves included) by the extent of their darknet exposure.

By comparing how much compromised Black Hat exhibitor data was available on these numerous anonymous networks, forums and channels, and running this information through our proprietary algorithm, we reached key takeaways about the differences and similarities between the cybersecurity industry and other commercial companies.

Each company's darknet index score is calculated based on the application of our proprietary algorithm to our data set, which is comprised of the intelligence gained from monitoring the darknets (Tor, IRC, I2P, ZeroNet, other hacker forums), FTP servers, paste sites, high-risk surface internet and other transitory sites. These areas attract threat actors seeking to sell, purchase, or expose stolen data.